Metaphysical meaning of Tobiah (mbd)
Tobiah, to-bi-ah (Heb.)--Jehovah is good; Jah is good; goodness of Jehovah.
An Ammonite, a servant of Sanballat the Horonite, who hindered Nehemiah and the Jews in their work of rebuilding Jerusalem's wall and in reestablishing the worship of God in the Temple (Neh. 2:10, 19). It seems that because of intermarriage some of the chief Jewish men were allied to Tobiah, and he was given a chamber in the Temple; but Nehemiah cast him and his goods out (Neh. 6:17-19; 13:4-9). "The children of Tobiah" were among those who returned from the Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel, but were unable to prove their lineage as Jews (Ezra 2:60).
Meta. The Ammonites are a wild, uncultivated state of consciousness, which thoughts of sensuality, sin, and ignorance have formed in the outer, worldly phase of man's being. Tobiah is one of the ruling thoughts in the Ammonitish phase of mind. This Tobiah thought is very deceptive, and is sometimes believed to be of a true spiritual character; but it is not. While it acknowledges the Christ Truth to be good, and professes to believe in the law of God and in the divine goodness (Jehovah is good, goodness of Jehovah), it does not seek to lift itself to the spiritual plane. It continues to express in its old error ways and thus hinders the true overcoming of the individual--the true rebuilding of the body temple. It must be discovered for what it is and must be cast out of the Temple (man's consciousness and body) completely with all its goods--all the thought substance that it has gathered about it.
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